Clinical Nutrition and Dietetics

Paleolithic Diets

The Paleo diet consists of foods, eaten during the Palaeolithic Era. It is claimed that the food eaten in Palaeolithic era were better than what it is eaten now. The word paleo means the Paleolithic Era or the Stone Age that initiated about 2.5 million years ago and finished around the time of the last Ice Age, about 10,000 years ago. At that point, the Paleolithic Era switched into the Neolithic Era, which is when humans started to settle down and develop farming techniques. That meant there were more farmers and less hunter-gatherer. People with Paleo diet more often eat more like a hunter/gatherer rather than a farmer. Principally, human beings have not yet changed biologically after the Paleolithic era and should not eat the agriculturally produced foods like Neolithic era. Protagonists further claim that foods the Paleolithic hunter-gathers ate were the reason they didn't suffer from chronic diseases of aging such as diabetes, arthritis, heart disease, and cancer (as opposed to dying before they got old).  Protein content is more in paleolithic diet (mostly animal resources). While on paleolithic diet one should avoid all cereal grains (such as wheat, rice, quinoa, and oats), white potatoes, legumes (beans and peanuts), salt, sugar, and all processed foods.